A04 Attachment 5 FAR 13 under SAT 1017178.pdf

AOP No. 5, J&A-Other Than Full & Open Competition- Attachment 5 (Feb. 26, 2020)

Limited Source/Brand Name Justification United States Department of Agriculture

FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) – Simplified Acquisitions

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting office.

United States Department of Agriculture, Departmental Administration, Office of Contracting and Procurement, Procurement Operations Division, 301 S. Howes Street, Suite 321, Fort Collins, CO 80521.

2. Description of supply or service required to meet the agency’s needs.

The Information Security Center (ISC) proposes a purchase of licenses and virtual cyber Escape Room exercises in support of cybersecurity awareness month.

3. The rationale or circumstances for limiting competition.

Living Security’s escape room training is a unique, interactive and hands-on way of educating and training employees on security awareness concepts during a team experience. It fosters team-building skills, critical thinking and problem solving that facilitate a deeper understanding and retention of training material that is presented.

The Escape Room is customized to the security tenants and risks that customer wishes to focus on.

Living Security’s proprietary process of escape room development begins with an understanding of the cyber risks and threats that Customer’s cybersecurity personnel are most concerned about. These can range from phishing, or leaving sensitive documentation out, to espionage and the insider threat. The escape room developed will include puzzles and challenge questions that relate to these threats and risks identified through the process.

The in-game training moments and challenge questions are customized to customers IT/Security policies and messaging to provide consistency with security program. Living Security introduces security policy-related questions throughout the gameplay, these questions will correlate against Customer’s policies and security response messaging.

For Instance- One of the questions may be, where should Customer's employees submit possible phishing emails? Every organization has a different answer to this question, so they uncover the answer from Customer and build it into the gameplay.

The timing the event is customized based on customer requirements. Living Security will build the room as per Customer’s expectations of the number of employees they want to experience the engagement.

The event is hosted on-site in a conference room provided by customer. Living Security will bring all the props, material and technology to operate the engagement on site. Customer is not responsible for the sourcing of anything required to host the engagement.

The event is portable and can be hosted at multiple locations per customer request.

Living Security team members contain cyber-security, security awareness training and threat intelligence experts who are able to understand how to transfer Customer's cyber risks and cyber threats into teachable moments through game play within The Living Security Escape Room training engagement. There are currently no other vendors or individuals who possess the expertise in all three areas along with the skills and experience to develop, build, and operate a modular escape room engagement for enterprise organizations such as Customer's, and the many other Fortune 500 customers that are already clients of Living Security.

4. A description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

In attempt to verify other possible vendors who could offer this level of support, Living Security appears to be the only company to offer these specific products. While other companies have built their own in-house training simulations they are not offered as a product for external customers. GSA Advantage, SEWP and NITACC were serveyed with no results. A copy of this J&A will be posted to FBO to validate the market research.

5. Estimated price, including all options, if applicable.

The estimated value is $50,000.00

6. Recommended source(s).

LIVING SECURITY, INC.

Certifications

Supporting data that is the responsibility of technical or requirements personnel and which form the basis for this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge.

Kelly Barnett USDA/OCIO/CIO IT Acquisitions Program Manager

The information contained in this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief and in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 13.106-1(b)(1), I hereby determine the circumstances described above deem only one source, or limited sources, reasonably available and competition is precluded for the reasons indicated in this document.

James B. Edington Contracting Officer